Gallery

Celia de Serra

Drawn Together
Drawings, Paintings and Photographs by Celia & Nick de Serra

5 - 26 November 2016

After two successful shows at The Art Stable, Celia de Serra is back for a joint show with her husband, Nick. Although Celia’s work belongs to the figurative romantic tradition and Nick’s work comes from a disciplined almost concrete form of abstraction, their methods and ways of working are similar and there is an artistic dialogue between them.

Both artists apply a forensic intensity of focus to their work and use pencil in a similar way, building up layers of mark making. Celia uses this technique to describe the visceral texture of the woodlands, which are her main subject matter, while Nick squeezes out the superfluous to create a meaningful sense of ‘intent’ and rhythm.

Celia’s work on leaving Exeter University, where she studied Art and English, was predominately concerned with abstraction but gradually her strong attachment to West Dorset manifested itself in her work and she began to apply her intense focus to the landscape. She is interested in placing the viewer into the picture frame as a solitary observer and although there are no figures in Celia’s landscapes, traces of human activity are suggested via tracks and clearings.

Since Nick graduated from Winchester School of Art in 1990 he has maintained an almost serialised method of working that chronicles the duration of each work’s progress. Marina Vaizey has written, ‘by intertwining his interest in the process of drawing/painting with a traditional approach to the actual practice of it, Nicholas has created works of multi-layered resonance. Out of the works’ rhythmic progress comes variety… For all their ambiguous, ambivalent nature - in which the artist’s imagination has left a great deal of room for ours - the works are satisfyingly solid and palpable’.

Having been living and working under the same roof for twenty years Celia and Nick’s working practices have inevitably influenced each other and although this is the first joint show they have undertaken together it is something they have often discussed. The Art Stable is delighted to be presenting their work together.